In the past, Russia and China had cooperated. "Always like to keep one hand"This is true both in the military and economic fields.
Of course, the reason for such behavior can be understood, think about it, it is like we are not willing to sell heavyweights like the J-20 to Pakistan the same, at least at the moment it is unrealistic to sell the J-20 abroad.
But by September 2025, Russia will announce its willingness to export to China.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said: If China needs it, Putin's government ordered it to export PD-26 engines。
Does Russia regret what it has done before?
it's not that simple
In fact, if Russia is willing to export PD-26 engines from China, we should look at it, and never underestimate the actual fact that a military-trade power "grabs money" from other countries.
The PD-26 is indeed a very excellent aviation engine in terms of performance indicators. Its single-station propulsion reached 26 tons, far exceeding the turbine-18 engines used by China's 20s and even turbine-20 engines.。
If China had heavy engines such as PD-26 at the time of the design of the shipment-20, then the volume of the shipment-20 could also increase by about 40%, greatly enhancing its carrying capacity.
But regarding Russia's willingness to export PD-26 engines to China, We need to understand two key points. One is that Russia has no stock at all, and the other is that China itself is developing similar things。
The PD-26 is currently on the Russian PPT, which has not even produced the first experimental material, and naturally has no cash.
According to the Russian plan, The first batch of PD-26 engines will begin production as soon as 2027.At present, the thing has not even climbed the high-altitude, and whether its maximum propulsion can really reach 26 tons, and whether it has any hidden technical hazards, everyone, including Russia itself, is unknown.
Russia said that it would sell this thing to China, which is still on PPT. The humor of this matter is no less than "a certain country wants to establish a new social security system, saying that as long as citizens live to be 200 years old, they can unconditionally get a large amount of social security money".
As for the second thing, the PD-26 is mainly a model heavy shipping for civilian use.。
Russia is developing PD-26, China is now working on the development of large civil aircraft C929 passenger aircraft, so is also working on the development of the Yangtze River 2000 engine for the C929 passenger aircraft.。
Compared with the PD-26, the performance indicators of the Yangtze River 2000 engine are stronger. Its single maximum thrust reaches 35.2 tons, which allows a 280-seat large passenger aircraft to have a range of 12,000 kilometers.
The most important is, Yangtze River 2000 is moving faster than the Russian PD-26。
At present, Russia's PD-26 does not have the first real aircraft, nor has it completed high-altitude platform testing. However, China's Yangtze River 2000 successfully completed its first high-altitude platform test in March 2025.
The first batch of PD-26 engines is expected to be produced in 2027, which means that its high-altitude platform testing will not be carried out until 2027 at the earliest. China's Yangtze River 2000 has now completed its high-altitude test, meaning that Yangtze River 2000 has progressed at least two years faster than the Russian PD-26.。
Now Russia is holding an engine with worse performance indicators and slower progress than the Yangtze River 2000, and says it is willing to export to China. This is a bit of trying to treat China as India.
Failure cases of China-Russia cooperation
A series of technical cooperation between China and Russia , not many of them went well.The most typical examples are CR2929 passenger aircraft and AHL heavy helicopters.
The AHL heavy helicopter was signed by China-Russia in 2016 and has been operating for nine years.。
At present, the AHL heavy helicopter project still exists, but the progress is very slow, in a clear "half-dead" state.
As for the CR2929, it is a 280 large passenger aircraft that China and Russia signed a cooperative agreement to develop in 2017.。
Originally, the aircraft was intended to use the PD-35 engine (a 35-ton engine) developed by Russia, but is limited to the problems in the Russian industrial chain. The development of the PD-35 engine is in difficulty。
So Russia downgraded the engine, launching the PD-26 engine we mentioned above on the basis of PD-35.
But the progress of PD-26 is still the same. At present, Russia has not yet produced an actual machine.
Therefore Now China has basically given up the CR929 and went to build the C929 by itself。
For the PD-35 engine supplied by Russia and the PD-26 engine, China is not hopeful, and is currently independently developing the Yangtze 2000 engine, and plans to use this domestic heavy engine on the C929 .
Why is Sino-Russian technical cooperation so difficult?
As for why the joint research and development projects between Russia and China are so bumpy, There are two main reasons, one is the supply chain problem, and the other is that Russia likes to hide first-hand technology。
On the first point, Russia's own industrial system is quite weak, and Russia is responsible for the technical part of cooperation projects. Russia is often unable to solve all technical problems aloneParts must be purchased from abroad.
This is the case with the engine of the CR929 passenger plane we mentioned above.
The PD-35 engine originally planned to be used in Russia requires foreign parts, but Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia was subject to comprehensive sanctions from the West. As a result, PD-35 could no longer be built, and Russia could only downgrade and build PD-26 engines.。
The weak industrial system makes it quite unreliable for Russia to carry out large-scale project research and development. Any disturbance in the world will cause Russia to suffer huge setbacks.
Not to mention Russia's hidden technology. In military cooperation projects, Russia naturally cannot release all its technology to China。
After all, some of the projects of China-Russia cooperation are essentially a “historical legacy issue.”
By 2020, Russia has a significant technological advantage over China, so China hopes to cooperate with Russia to accelerate its development in these areas.
But the After these years of cooperation, China also understands that Russia is not the Soviet Union after all, its technological development capabilities have actually been left far behind by China.。
As for the technologies that Russia currently has advantages over China, they are basically all Military technologyYes. However, Russia will obviously not fully liberalize such technology to China, and it will be difficult for China to obtain it if it wants to cooperate with Russia.
Therefore, it is better for anyone to rely on themselves for technological development, especially for China, a technological power that has reached the world-class level.
Source of information:
[1] Observer Network "Russian Deputy Prime Minister: Planning to Provide Heavy Engines to Chinese Aircraft"
Russia and China jointly develop heavy helicopters